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Complete noob to the Hyperspin scene.


Warleyboy71

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Firstly I would like to say "Hi", and what a great site this is.

I have my heart on building a bar top hyperspin cab.

Problem is I do not know where to start and whether i have the ability to carry out such a project.

I bought a jamma cab last year to play one of my fave games whilst a teenager, "Kung Fu Master", been looking at another fave of mine Double Dragon, but the boards are so expensive and realistically need a vertical cab as well.(Can't see missus having that).

So, could you please advise on maybe whether it's worth buying in a pre made bartop rather than cutting myself ?, what type of pc spec is best, best buttons etc...

I live near Birmingham, England, any help would be much appreciated..

Oh, and what sort of cost I would be looking at to build this beauty...Thanks All

Wayne

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Hi Wayne, welcome to the forum.

If your good with the tools and have access to jigsaws, routers etc and space to build it, then get yourself down to B&Q. If not get a pre cut.

The PC will depend on what systems you want to run.

Controls can be picked up from Ebay, ArcadeWorld, Ultimarc or other US sites.

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Hi Warleyboy, welcome to the hyperspin :)

In my opinion it all depends what you want on your cab, the old arcade games/consoles from 80s/early 90s or more modern consoles and pc games. This will give you an idea of the spec/cost of pc you require.

Then you have the components themselves, will you be opting for cheap Chinese products via eBay or buying the recommended hardware from the likes of ultimarc and arcade world.

I'd say you would be looking £250 for a low spec budget bar top upto around £700 - 800 if not more for a top spec. You can buy complete ones on ebay for around the £500 mark. My bar top I've been working on for my son (need to get back on it) has cost me around £650 so far but again, I have opted for a good pc spec and quality controls.

The best part is building it yourself :) you'll get loads of help here too.

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Thank You gigapig and connorsdad, I'm a massive fan of the 80's n 90's games and ideally I wanna be playin ghosts n goblins, r type, commando, killer instinct, rampage etc, what do you mean by pc games, does hyperspin enable you to put latest pc games on it ?

Ideally, I would love to build my own from the ground up, but I do not have a router and have never used one, so is it worth me buying pre made... If I could lay my hands on one, is it easy enuff.. I do have some DIY skills and can put my hand to anything around home...

If I was to cut my own mdf, could you point me to a good source of instructions please...

I really wanna put together my own machine..... Let the bar top cabinet begin :)

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You can launch anything that has an .exe through hyperspin, so yes, you can launch the latest pc games. In terms of systems, if there is an emulator for it, you can launch it through hyperspin, though you'll have to do the scripting yourself because hyperspin doesn't officially support current gen. Sounds to me though like all you need is a nice Mame set. I'm not sure exactly what the specs are but you should be able to run it decent with a low end pc.

Its worth it. I got my wisdom tooth pulled yesterday and I was in pain and irritable and the only thing that got me through the night was playing some good ol snes games: metroid, super mario rpg, and I played the shit out of some Utopia for some reason.

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Thank You gigapig and connorsdad, I'm a massive fan of the 80's n 90's games and ideally I wanna be playin ghosts n goblins, r type, commando, killer instinct, rampage etc, what do you mean by pc games, does hyperspin enable you to put latest pc games on it ?

Ideally, I would love to build my own from the ground up, but I do not have a router and have never used one, so is it worth me buying pre made... If I could lay my hands on one, is it easy enuff.. I do have some DIY skills and can put my hand to anything around home...

If I was to cut my own mdf, could you point me to a good source of instructions please...

I really wanna put together my own machine..... Let the bar top cabinet begin :)

I'd never owned/used a router either before I built my G4D cab, now I think it's one of the best tools I own :)

If I can build a cab from scratch anyone can. Regarding the bar top I am working on at the minute I bought a pre cut kit, would I recommend it ? No, you are limited by someone elses imagination and end up with a generic bartop. Grab a sheet of mdf (from a local timber yard cheaper than B&Q, wickes etc) and a pencil and have a play around :)

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I'd never owned/used a router either before I built my G4D cab, now I think it's one of the best tools I own :)

If I can build a cab from scratch anyone can. Regarding the bar top I am working on at the minute I bought a pre cut kit, would I recommend it ? No, you are limited by someone elses imagination and end up with a generic bartop. Grab a sheet of mdf (from a local timber yard cheaper than B&Q, wickes etc) and a pencil and have a play around :)

Could really do with some plans n ideas before commencing my design, and hyperspin requires script writing, unsure if that falls within my remit, having second thoughts guys....

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Could really do with some plans n ideas before commencing my design, and hyperspin requires script writing, unsure if that falls within my remit, having second thoughts guys....

Again I was in the same boat as you are now, I'd never even heard of ahk let alone write a script when I started. You'll pick things up as you go, there's a great bunch of people on this forum, friendly, knowledgeable and willing to help :)

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Could really do with some plans n ideas before commencing my design, and hyperspin requires script writing, unsure if that falls within my remit, having second thoughts guys....

If your building a bar top, which I assume is just a screen, controls and PC encased in a wooden shell. If that is true, then I don't think you need to worry about script writing, unless your thinking of making a rival to the God like "Grounds for Divorce".

I've never written a script, modified slightly yes, asked connersdad to hook me up yes ;) but me no.

Not sure if this will help, I used it for my Control panel. http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick.html

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You can play tens of thousands of 80s/90s through hyperspin without ever having to modify a single script. If you wanted to rip one of your xbox games and have it launch, though, you'd have to do it yourself. That's for current gen/ homebrew stuff. To give you an idea, I have 92 systems up and running and I've never had to write a script. I learned enough to modify a few along the way, but even that wasn't necessary, and usually someone has written step by step instructions anyway. Hyperlaunch comes stock with scripts for well over 100 emulators, many of which, mame, mess, mednafen, retroarch, bizhawk just to name a few emulate multiple systems. The systems I have span from the 1970s to a few days ago when I set up Hyperspin to launch The Evil Within for kicks.

To give you another perspective on this, when I started messing with Hyperspin I could barely change the resolution on my PC. I played console games 100 percent. In fact, the only downside to this for me was that learning about the PC opened up a whole new world of computer games for me, and now I'm horribly addicted to League of Legends. I mean... its bad. I've owned The Evil Within for days now, I've set it up in Hyperspin, and I haven't played the damned game once. Not. One. Time. I've resolved to play it tonight after open admission of this.

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Whoah, hold on there buddy. You'll need the following if you decide to build from scratch:

Router

Jigsaw

Drill

Table saw

Glass cutter (if you want to use glass rather than plexiglass)

Circular saw

Wood clamps

Screw drivers

Additionally, you'll need the bits and cutting blades:

T-molding router bit

Laminate cutting router bit (if you use laminate)

Wood cutting jigsaw blade

Wood cutting circular blade

Drill bits

Drill hole cutting bits

These tools represent a significant investment. And make no mistake about it, you will need to buy some of these things even if you can borrow some of these tools since some of these things are specialized like the T-molding router bit, which almost anyone with a router will not have. Also, you have to take into account the time investment needed to complete a build from scratch. Lots of arcade projects go abandoned for lonnnnnng periods of time for one reason or another. connersdad's beautiful cab isn't called G4D for nothing. So in your case, it may be best to buy a prefabbed bartop. The other option you can take is since you already bought a JAMMA cab, why not give it the MAME/Hyperspin treatment? You are looking at the following investment:

1 - JAMMA+ Harness (2p/6button)

1 - Ultimarc J-Pac

2 - New Joysticks

2 - New Set of Buttons

1 - Artwork (if any)

1 - Old PC for 80's and 90's games (I recommend a Core 2 Duo based machine for power saving and performance while not requiring a huge investment)

The effort involved would be, rewiring the JAMMA harness for 6 button games (you might not have to do this if there is a harness there already. You can just add the 3 kick buttons for SF2 style games). Reconfiguring the control panel for 6 button games. It is an effort that will either require drilling new holes or redesigning a new control panel. Replacing the old controls/buttons with new ones. This gives the cab a new feel and is likely required anyway. Cleaning it up and adding artwork, if any. Finally, setting up the software/PC. Go bartop if you are limited on space. But there is nothing like an instantly recognizable full-sized cab in your home, nothing. And since you already have a full sized cab, why not refurb it?

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You could try searching for "bartop arcade" on ebay, as there are a few flat-pack kits available. I can't vouch for them personally as I haven't bought one, but they look quite promising.

I plan on building a bartop from scratch next year as I have most of the required tools already, and some very specific ideas about what shape to make it. Hopefully I won't make a complete hash of it!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ok, going to convert my jamma cab, keep monitor and try to get that sorted as it has greeny colour in top right hand corner.

Been looking for days...

This is very new to me, never built pc before, please could you put down all what I need for build and to play the 80's 90's games of my youth...

Sounds like I need an Intel core 2 duo processor for starters, what motherboard? Graphics card, power supply, drive, and best place to get please....jpac from ultimarc..

Cheers

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